


Fine

by AgentStannerShipper



Series: tumblr ficlets [51]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon Compliant, Feelings, Light Angst, M/M, Season/Series 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-23 00:23:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18538507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentStannerShipper/pseuds/AgentStannerShipper
Summary: For once, they talk about feelings. No, not those feelings.





	Fine

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "people lie all the time." I wrote this sometime after Jack killed Felix, but before he killed Mary.

“How are you, really?” Cas asks, for what must be the millionth time this year, and it’s purely because it’s Cas asking that Dean doesn’t snap at him.

“I’m fine,” he says, like he always says, because he is a Winchester, and it takes more than one question from a concerned angel to get a Winchester to admit anything. Or so he likes to think.

“We both know that’s a lie,” Cas says, undeterred. Dean never knows if it’s a blessing or a curse, how much the angel cares.

“So what?” he says. “People lie all the time. Especially to a question like that.”

“Dean…”

Dean sighs. Cas can convey such a broad range of emotions just with the angle of his head tilt and with his eyes. His face is remarkably expressive. Dean has almost forgotten that there was a time when Cas barely felt emotion, much less expressed it. He can read the disappointment and concern and earnest love, always love, in Cas’s face. He looks away so he doesn’t have to think about it. He knows, of course he knows, but there’s too much at stake right now.

(There’s always too much at stake, but Dean will use that excuse for his cowardice until he dies.)

“Fine,” he says. “I’m awful. I’m tired, I’m stressed out, and I’m scared out of my mind. We’re all running on empty, all the time, just waiting for the next bomb to drop. The kid-“ He cuts himself off. “I love Jack, you know I do.” The word still feels strange on his tongue, but it gets better every time he says it. He continues, “But I’m worried about him. Hell, I’m scared of him.”

“I know the feeling,” Cas says, and the regret and sorrow in his voice is almost too much to bear. “But we’ll get through this.”

“We always do,” Dean agrees, without feeling the words. He takes a swig of beer and pretends he doesn’t see Cas’s hand twitch towards his on the table. They’ll get through it, because they have to. Even if it breaks them.


End file.
